HD-DVD Looks to Surrender

It's all doom and gloom for the HD-DVD camp. Following a string of setbacks in the last few weeks, commentators are lining up to declare the war over with Blu-ray the winner.

Rumour has it that the HD-DVD group will make an official announcement conceding defeat as early as tomorrow. If so it's a remarkable turnaround from their never-surrender attitude that threatened to drag the farcical situation out for years.

I'm not happy that Sony and their friends get all the spoils and suffer no consequences for their part in this debacle, but I am happy that a resolution is in sight. I'm especially happy that Blu-ray wins because I've maintained all along that it's the better format.

For those of you that haven't seen the "Hitler" video showing a very funny take on the end of the war, here it is. I don't know who to attribute this to - there are a number of versions floating around and I couldn't see where the original came from. If anyone knows, please post the appropriate credit.

it is too bad really. I figured that sony would pull out the win here, however i much rathered the HD DVD format, Oh well, i can not change the world, guess I can finally make my shop go HD, now that there is really only one

Ok Sony gets a win this time around. In away this makes up for the lost Betamax vs. VHS war (for those of you who could remember that)

Now that the consumer is able to move on - what is TNBT (the next big thing)?

Are you ready for UHDTV (7,680 &#215; 4,320 pixels)with 22.2 surround sound? Stereoscopic or 3D TV? The technology is still young but expect to see more 3D movies at the theater, at least for a short time.

So how realistic do you think 3D UHD will look?

With the new formats on the horizon, your hot, new quad core already has it's days numbered...lol, and I'm still not finished building my dual core....

Actually I should clarify that my preference for Blu-ray is based almost soley on capacity. I tend to think other factors can either be worked around or improved in the future, whereas I really want that extra capacity.

I'm keen on 3D but it's got to be as comfortable to watch as 2D. A friend of mine holds some patents for anaglyphic 3D processing, and it is very good (the best I've seen), but he and I disagree over whether anyone really cares. I say the best anaglyphic 3D can never win over the public.

One of my website projects is www.3dnewzealand.com. It's currently a terribly messy work in progress, but I see one of the biggest potential attractions as being 3D video. I'm encouraging my friend to start shooting stereo footage and collecting a stockpile - my pick is that when someone invents a killer 3D display system there will suddenly be a big market for 3D stock footage.

That's my tip and business idea for today - get shooting in stereo and build the only 3D video library in your area - you'll be a big step ahead of the game when 3D does become TNBT

Toshiba President and Chief Executive Atsutoshi Nishida said in a press release: "We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop."

So far BluRay has been a complete disaster with Sony reporting the worst sales ever for a new system.

In Australia they cannot sell BD players and are giving them away if you buy an HDTV!!! If you consider that a media player unit costs less than a BD player and handles all sorts of media, I suspect that we will see more people moving to card based movies. Cards are getting cheaper by the day and soon you will see your TV with an SDHC card slot built in!!!

In my entire wedding season for 2008/9 not ONE clients asked me for HD and I doubt whether anyone even knows what a BD player is!! The only people really using BD here are ones that already own a Playstation 3 which has BD facilities.